KUALA LUMPUR: The Human Resources Ministry will request that the Immigration Department make the process easier for foreign workers who are being brought in legally, says Datuk Seri M. Saravanan.
He said that under the system of foreign labour intake, Immigration was the one in charge of ensuring all foreign workers brought into the country were legal and through the right channels.
“Sending back foreign workers who have arrived in Malaysia is not an option.
“There should be no question of returning the workers whose employers do not fetch them at the KL International Airport (KLIA).
"I will ask the Immigration director-general to accelerate the process of bringing in foreign workers as many employers are in need of them.
"As this is an internal problem between ministries, I will discuss this with the director-general,” said the Human Resources Minister after an event to announce the National Human Capital Conference and Exhibition (NHCCE) 2022 here on Wednesday (Sept 28).
Saravanan said this when asked on Immigration director-general Datuk Seri Khairul Dzaimee Daud’s statement that employers are required to wait for the arrival of their new foreign workers at the KLIA to ensure that they have a legitimate employer.
Khairul Dzaimee said the employers were responsible for managing the workers’ documentation and verifying that they were their employers.
He also said the Immigration Department's regulations give employers a period of six hours to receive their foreign workers at KLIA, but in certain circumstances, that period could be extended.
Earlier at the event, Saravanan said NHCCE 2022 would be held on a bigger scale after a two-year hiatus.
“Now that we have the Industrial Revolution 4.0 and the development of human resource 5.0, we have to be more competitive, especially when there are workers who will have to be relieved due to digitalisation.
“Now that we have robots to do cleaning, cleaners will no longer have jobs. What do we do with them? We have to reskill and upskill them - these are the types of issues the conference will address,” he said.
